Behavior

How To Develop Leadership Empathy

By Brandon W. Jones on October 6, 2017 0

Have you ever wanted to obtain empathy? People have asked me on multiple occasions, “How can I obtain leadership empathy?” This is a great question, so let’s talk about leadership empathy.

How To Develop Leadership Empathy — Photo: Pixabay/StockSnap

What is Leadership Empathy?

Before developing leadership empathy, one must understand what it means to have empathy. Here’s a few dictionary definitions of empathy:

The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. (Google)
the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; (Merriam-Webster)
Empathy is the capacity to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within the other person’s frame of reference, i.e., the capacity to place oneself in another’s position. (Wikipedia)

When you have empathy, you can understand, relate to, and feel what others are feeling as if you were in their shoes.

How Does Empathy Relate to Leadership Empathy?

In leadership, you lead others. Those you lead have many things going on in their lives. They go through challenges, trials, and other difficulties.

When one has leadership empathy, they feel for those they lead. They pay close attention to the feelings and thoughts of those they lead. As they are in-tune with others, they change their behavior to help those they lead in the best way for them. [Read more…] about How To Develop Leadership Empathy

Leadership Development – Your #1 Responsibility

By Brandon W. Jones on October 15, 2014 0

When I was in my early 20’s, I had a leader that recognized potential in me. He felt like I could be a great leader someday so over the next two years, he held leadership development sessions with me on a regular basis. During those sessions he helped me recognize my strengths and how to leverage them. He also helped me overcome some of my weaknesses. He taught me many great leadership lessons. Those leadership development sessions helped me understand what I could become.

That leader was a great leader. His leadership development sessions helped me to be the person I am today. Those lessons have stuck with me through the years.

As a leader, you have the ability to provide leadership development sessions for those you lead. You can use this as an opportunity to help them grow to become great leaders. When they become great leaders, everyone benefits.

So what should you do during the leadership development sessions? The following four points explain topics you can address during these sessions.

Leadership Development

1. Provide Training

When leadership development is your number one goal, focus on helping those you lead to understand what it means to be a great leader and how they can become a great leader. Train them on the do’s and don’ts of great leadership. Also, help them understand how they can be a leader within their current roles and responsibilities. [Read more…] about Leadership Development – Your #1 Responsibility

Five Of My Favorite Leadership Bloggers

By Brandon W. Jones on June 26, 2012 4

I follow many other leadership blogs on a regular basis and have my favorite leadership bloggers. As I read the posts, I learn a lot about how to be a better leader. The posts help me learn leadership techniques I can use to improve my skills and abilities. They also show me techniques that have worked, as well as, those that haven’t.

So you are probably asking yourself, “What bloggers do you follow regularly?” Because I follow too many bloggers to share on one post, I will just start with five in this post. I am not going to name them in any particular order.

Bret L. Simmons (PhD) – Positive Organizational Behavior

Bret’s About me page says, “I am passionate about leadership and management. My purpose is “to change your mind about the value of partnering with others to build healthy, responsible organizations where everyone can thrive.” I try to keep everything I do — training, speaking, teaching, research — consistent with my purpose.”

Bret does a great job showing how leadership principles taught in the classroom apply to real life. He regularly explains how leaders can and should do a better job to make their organizations more effective. He also spends a lot of time focusing on everyday interactions that have a significant impact on the level of customer satisfaction. As he addresses them, he points out the good things that have happened as well as the bad things. From there, he analyzes what they did right and what they did wrong. [Read more…] about Five Of My Favorite Leadership Bloggers

Leaders, Beware Of The Me Monster

By Brandon W. Jones on February 12, 2011 1

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QvSoRQrVJg]

I love the explanation Brian Regan gives of what the “me monster” is. I am sure everyone has had contact with a me monster before. Me monsters take the form of coworkers, bosses, subordinates, etc. Me monsters can be very destructive in an organization. The following are three reasons why me monsters are destructive:

1. Me monsters are in it for themselves.

When you have a me monster in your organization, they are only in it for themselves. They focus on themselves all the time. They only do things if it directly benefits them.

[Read more…] about Leaders, Beware Of The Me Monster

How To Get Your Employees To Be On Time

By Brandon W. Jones on January 30, 2011 4

Have you ever arrived on time to a meeting and had to wait to start the meeting until several of your employees showed up late? Or as you start a meeting, have you seen your employees or others casually stroll in late? Either of these behaviors can be very disruptive and even disrespectful. It is very important to be on time because when you show up late, it says that either you don’t respect your time, or come from a background where punctuality is not respected.

Teach Punctuality

So how do you teach punctuality? I had an experience several years ago that taught me a valuable lesson on the importance of punctuality. I was a leader of a group of about six people at the time. Within the group, I constantly struggled to figure out how to get people to be on time.

An Example

I came into the environment where several of the people would show up late to the meetings without notifying me. When I say late, it wasn’t just five minutes, they would show up anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes late. Since they were in the habit of showing up late, they would expect me to wait around to start the meeting until they showed up.

The Problem

This was a major problem since a few others and I would always show up at the scheduled time for the meeting. As this behavior progressed, I felt the need to discuss punctuality on a regular basis. For several meetings in a row, I explained the importance of being on time. I regularly started the meetings at the scheduled time even if not everyone was there. [Read more…] about How To Get Your Employees To Be On Time